Asia Crude-IOC holds off on May/June tender

TOKYO, Apr 18 (Reuters) State-run Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) has not awarded a contract following its monthly tender offer to buy crude oil for end-May and June liftings, traders said on Tuesday.

India's largest refiner had intended to buy low-sulphur crude in the tender that closed last week.

Traders said they did not know why IOC had not awarded the contract to anyone.

The company has a total refining capacity of around 1 million barrels per day (bpd) and tenders several times a month to buy crude, mainly West African grades.

IOC had already bought about 4 million barrels of Nigerian crude for June, and 1.5 million barrels of Yemeni grade in its previous tender.

REUTERS CS HS0917